AWK!! We Do Not Teach Sit Ups!

Some advertising on our behalf said “Sit-ups remain one of the best methods of reshaping the abdomen. . . ”

This is NOT true and we DO NOT ever do sit ups. Sit ups will eventually cause damage to most people and, other than making the rectus abdominis thicker (a thicker waist?), they have no benefit to a stronger or sculpted core. We have around 850 muscles in the body and a good deal of them are core muscles whose function in part, is to stabilize the spine. Thickening one muscle cannot create a strong core.  Doing any type of spinal flexion can be harmful to your low back because this will compress the disks in your spine. The disks in your spine are the same disks that get herniated in low back injury. And moves like sit-ups essentially “crush” the disks between the bones in your spine, causing terrible pain and nerve damage.

Ironically, though, they do remain a good way to measure abdomial strength.  Dr Stuart McGill offers a better way still.  He teaches that adults should be able to hold a front plank for 2 minutes

So what about crunches, the staple core exercise in many workouts? They are still spine bending exercises and not much better than a sit up. Most professional trainers and experts have determined that there is too much risk for way too little results.

So what to do instead? Come in on a Wednesday and try one of our core workouts and you will find out. Come for 2 months and you will have the strongest core of your life!